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Southern Professional Hockey League
| champion = Mississippi Surge | most_champs = Knoxville Ice Bears (3) | website = www.TheSPHL.com }} The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a low-level professional ice hockey league based in Charlotte, North Carolina, with teams located in the southeastern United States. History The SPHL's history traces back to three other short-lived leagues. The Atlantic Coast Hockey League started play in the 2002–03 season. After its only season, the ACHL dissolved with member teams forming the nucleus for two rival leagues, the South East Hockey League and the World Hockey Association 2. After one season the SEHL and WHA2 disbanded, with their surviving teams rejoining with two expansion teams to form the SPHL, commencing with the 2004–05 season. In 2009, the SPHL saw a large expansion as three new franchises in Biloxi, Mississippi, Lafayette, Louisiana and Pensacola, Florida, all three of which were former ECHL markets within the past five years that produced competitive teams, each of which either won the league's championship or regular season title. For the 2011–12 season, the league added 2-time Central Hockey League champions, the Mississippi RiverKings. Teams Current Timeline DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:01/01/2004 till:07/01/2012 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.95,0.5,0.4) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:07/01/2005 text:Asheville Aces (2004–2005) bar:2 color:red from:07/01/2004 till:end text:Columbus Cottonmouths (2004–present) bar:3 color:red from:07/01/2004 till:end text:Fayetteville FireAntz (2004–present) bar:4 color:red from:07/01/2004 till:end text:Huntsville Havoc (2004–present) bar:5 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:07/01/2008 text:Jacksonville Barracudas (2004–2008) bar:6 color:red from:07/01/2004 till:end text:Knoxville Ice Bears (2004–present) bar:7 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:07/01/2005 text:Macon Trax (2004–2005) bar:8 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:07/01/2005 text:Winston-Salem Polar Twins (2004–2005) bar:9 color:barcolor from:07/01/2005 till:01/04/2007 text:Orlando/Florida Seals (2005–2007) bar:10 color:barcolor from:07/01/2005 till:06/15/2007 text:Pee Dee Cyclones (2005–2007) bar:10 color:barcolor from:07/15/2007 till:07/01/2009 text:Twin City Cyclones (2007–2009) bar:11 color:barcolor from:07/01/2006 till:07/01/2009 text:Richmond Renegades (2006–2009) bar:12 color:red from:07/01/2009 till:end text:Louisiana IceGators (2009–present) bar:13 color:red from:07/01/2009 till:end text:Mississippi Surge (2009–present) bar:14 color:red from:07/01/2009 till:end text:Pensacola Ice Flyers (2009–present) bar:15 color:red from:07/01/2010 till:end text:Augusta Riverhawks (2010–present) bar:16 color:red from:07/01/2011 shift:(-90) till:end text:Mississippi RiverKings (2011–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2004 Defunct franchises *Asheville Aces (2004–05) *Florida Seals (2005–07; membership terminated in the middle of the 2006–07 SPHL season) *Jacksonville Barracudas (2004–08; suspended for the 08–09 and 09–10 seasons and dissolved) *Macon Trax (2004–05) *Pee Dee Cyclones (2005–07; moved to Winston-Salem, NC) *Richmond Renegades (2006–09) *Twin City Cyclones (2007–09) *Winston-Salem Polar Twins (2004–05) Key rule differences As per minor leagues, there are some rule differences between the SPHL and the NHL (and even the ECHL and AHL, the two official developmental leagues regulated by the Professional Hockey Players Association). * A team may dress sixteen regular players to a game. Two players dressed for the game will be goaltenders. * There is no trapezoid restriction limiting the goaltender playing the puck and is eligible to play the puck anywhere on his side of the center redline. * A mouthpiece is required for all players except the goaltender. * No curvature of stick limitations as in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL. * Shootouts are five players (as in the ECHL and AHL). * All overtime periods in the regular season are between three skaters per team and the goaltender (3 on 3, compared to 4 on 4 in other leagues). Penalty rules differ during the overtime: ** During the first three minutes of overtime, in case of a penalty, the non-offending team is awarded one extra skater per penalty (up to two extra, five total). ** In the final two minutes, any minor penalty results in an automatic penalty shot.http://www.thesphl.com/news/?id=4229 Champions Playoffs President's Cup Regular season William B. Coffey Trophy Originally known as the Commissioner's Cup, the regular season trophy was renamed in honor of league co-founder William B. Coffey during the 2007–08 season. References External links *Southern Professional Hockey League website Category:Southern Professional Hockey League Category:Ice hockey leagues